The phrase “C standards committee” is eminently ambiguous, as the standards that define the C language (e.g. ISO/IEC 9899) are the work of a committee. These co

The phrase “C standards committee” is eminently ambiguous, as the standards that define the C language (e.g. ISO/IEC 9899) are the work of a committee. These committee members have constraints coming at them from all sides and do a very good job or maintaining compatibility with the past and future-proofing the C language at the same time. This has nothing to do with coding standards, which any fool can define (and some have), and for which the only instance that really deserves the name of “standard” is MISRA-C. The other such “standards” have a scope typically limited to a company and its providers, and reflect the style and idiosyncrasies of the person who was in charge of defining it (they are rarely the work of a committee).